Theory Colloquium

Gravitational waves from inflation

by Emanuela Dimastrogiovanni (Groningen U.)

Europe/Berlin
SR 2, build. 2a (DESY Hamburg)

SR 2, build. 2a

DESY Hamburg

Description

Primordial gravitational waves have the potential to shed new light on the very early universe. In this talk I discuss gravitational wave production in a variety of inflationary models beyond the simplest, single-field, scenarios and highlight some of their implications for testing inflation with interferometers. I also discuss how anisotropies in the gravitational wave energy density can be a powerful tool in characterizing the inflationary gravitational wave background and potentially distinguishing it from backgrounds due to other sources.